The Hunt Begins

The Hunt Begins
Sam's POV (Alive)

I'm breaking into Dr. Carver's house at 2 AM, looking for anything that might help me find Lisa Chen and the other missing dead teenagers.
The front door is unlocked, which should have been my first sign that something was wrong.
I creep through the dark hallway with my flashlight, headed for Dr. Carver's home office. If the shadow walkers have been collecting dead teens for decades, he might have kept records of other cases like Lisa's.
But when I reach his office, I find someone already there.
"Detective Rivera," says a familiar voice from the darkness. "I've been waiting for you."
I spin around and shine my flashlight on the invader. It's Chief Kellerman, sitting quietly in Dr. Carver's desk chair.
"Chief? What are you doing here?"
"The same thing you are. Looking for clues about how to find Lisa Chen."
Something about her voice sounds wrong. Too calm, too controlled.
"How did you know I'd be here?"
"Because you're predictable, Detective. You always go back to the evidence. Always try to solve the mystery through research and investigation."
I keep my flashlight directed at her face, but Kellerman doesn't squint or look away from the bright light. That's when I notice her eyes.
They're totally black.
"You're not Chief Kellerman," I say, going for my gun.
"Of course I am. I'm just a better version of myself now."
"You're a shadow walker."
The thing wearing Kellerman's face smiles. "Very good, Detective. But you're too late to save Lisa, and you're definitely too late to save yourself."
I draw my gun, but before I can fire, something grabs me from behind. Strong arms wrap around my chest, forcing my arms to my sides.
"Hello, Detective Rivera," says another familiar voice. "Remember me?"
I turn my head and see Dr. Carver holding me. But his eyes are black too.
"That's impossible. I saw you reclaim your body from the shadow walker. You were yourself again."
"I was myself for about ten minutes. Then these two found me."
The fake Dr. Carver nods toward two more shadow walkers standing in the corner. "They offered me a choice. Join them willingly, or watch them possess my sister Emma and her children."
"So you chose to become a monster."
"I chose to protect my family. Just like you're about to choose to help us find the other dead teenagers."
"Never."
The fake Kellerman stands up from the desk chair. "Detective, you don't understand the situation. We're not the bad guys anymore."
"What do you mean?"
"Those shadow walkers that escaped from Tidewaters? They're planning something terrible. They want to possess every child in the world, turn them all into servants of darkness."
"And that's different from what you want how?"
"Because we only want to possess the children who are already dead. Kids like Lisa Chen who don't even know they're ghosts."
The fake Dr. Carver tightens his grip on my arms. "Think about it, Detective. Those dead teenagers are trapped between life and death anyway. We can give them purpose. We can make them useful."
"By turning them into weapons."
"By turning them into protectors. Dead children who can fight the shadow walkers that want to hurt living children."
I look at them. "You want me to help you build an army of ghost teenagers."
"Exactly. And in exchange, we'll help you stop the shadow walkers that escaped to other cities."
"Why would you fight your own kind?"
The fake Kellerman laughs. "Because they're not our kind anymore. They evolved beyond us. They don't need human bodies to survive, which makes them competition for resources."
"This is insane."
"This is survival, Detective. The shadow walkers that left Tidewaters are going to possess millions of living children. The only way to fight them is with an equal number of dead children."
"And if I refuse to help you?"
The fake Dr. Carver whispers in my ear. "Then we possess you right now, and use your body to hunt down the dead teenagers ourselves. Either way, we get what we want."
I think about Lisa Chen, dragged away by shadow walkers to some unknown place. I think about Marcus, who decided to stay behind as a ghost instead of moving on to whatever comes after death.
"If I help you," I say slowly, "what guarantee do I have that you won't just kill me when you're done?"
"You don't," the fake Kellerman says. "But you do have our word that we'll free Lisa Chen and the other dead teenagers once we've built our army."
"Free them how?"
"By giving them the choice. Serve willingly as ghost soldiers, or move on to the afterlife."
"And you think they'll choose to be soldiers?"
"I think they'll choose to protect other children from the horror they experienced."
I consider their offer. It's probably a trap, but it might be the only way to save Lisa and the others.
"Where do we start?" I ask.
The fake Dr. Carver releases me. "With this."
He hands me a thick folder full of case files. Dead teenagers from dozens of towns across America, all killed in mysterious conditions while traveling to new homes.
"These are all the kids like Lisa?" I ask.
"That's just from the past five years. There are hundreds more going back decades."
I flip through the files, seeing picture after photo of teenagers who never made it to their new schools, their new friends, their new lives.
"Most of them don't even know they're dead yet," the fake Kellerman says. "They're still living out the illusion of normal teenage life in various small towns."
"How do we find them?"
"We follow the pattern. Shadow walkers always choose towns that are isolated, have dark histories, and need new residents to replace the ones who've disappeared over the years."
"Towns like Tidewaters."
"Exactly. We've identified twelve locations where dead teenagers are probably being kept right now."
The fake Dr. Carver pulls out a map marked with red dots. "We visit each town, collect the dead teenagers, and bring them back to a central location for training."
"Training to be soldiers."
"Training to fight monsters."
I study the map, trying to figure out if there's a way to save the teenagers without letting the shadow walkers build their army.
"What about the living people in these towns?" I ask. "If we remove the dead teenagers, won't the shadow walkers just kill more real kids to replace them?"
"Probably. But that's not our problem anymore."
"It should be everyone's problem."
The fake Kellerman's patience runs out. "Detective Rivera, you have thirty seconds to decide. Help us build an army of ghost soldiers, or become a ghost soldier yourself."
"And if I choose option three?"
"What's option three?"
I smile and pull out my backup gun, which I had hidden in my ankle holster while they were focused on my main weapon.
"Option three is I kill all of you and save the dead teenagers myself."
I fire three shots in rapid order, hitting both fake Dr. Carver and fake Kellerman center mass.
They dissolve into black smoke, screaming as they die.
But as their shadow walker forms vanish, I hear something that makes my blood freeze.
Laughter.
Coming from everywhere at once.
"Very good, Detective Rivera," says a voice that sounds like a thousand children speaking together. "You passed the test."
"What test?"
"The test to see if you were worthy of joining our real army."
The shadow walkers I just killed weren't trying to join me.
They were testing me to see if I had what it takes to fight the shadow walkers that escaped to other places.
"Who are you?"
"We're the dead children you freed from the ancient creature. Marcus, Carmen, Sarah, and all the others."
"But you moved on to the afterlife. I saw you disappear."
"We tried to move on. But we discovered something terrible waiting for us on the other side."
"What?"
"The shadow walkers that escaped from Tidewaters? They didn't go to other cities."
"Where did they go?"
"They went to the afterlife itself. They're possessing the souls of dead children before they can find peace."
My legs give out, and I fall into Dr. Carver's desk chair.
"You're saying they're turning heaven into hell?"
"We're saying there is no safe place left for dead children. Not in life, not in death."
"Then what do we do?"
"We fight back. But not as an army of ghost soldiers."
"Then how?"
"As something new. Something that's never existed before."
"What?"
Marcus's voice becomes clearer than the others. "Detective Rivera, we want you to kill us."
"What? No!"
"Not destroy us. Transform us. We want you to help us become something that can exist in both worlds at once."
"I don't understand."
"We want to become guardian spirits. Ghosts who can protect both living children and dead children, no matter what realm they're in."
"How is that even possible?"
"By making a deal with something older and more powerful than shadow walkers."
"What kind of something?"
"The original spirits of this land. The Native American souls who were here before Tidewaters was ever built."
I stare at the darkness around me, understanding that everything I thought I understood about this supernatural war was wrong.
"Detective Rivera," Carmen's voice joins Marcus's. "Are you willing to help us become something that can fight evil in every realm of existence?"
"What would that make me?"
"The first living person to make a deal with the dead for the right reasons."
"And if something goes wrong?"
"Then we all get trapped between worlds forever."
Outside, I hear thunder even though it's a clear night.
The real war is about to begin.
And I'm the only live person who can choose which side wins.